Mealey's Personal Injury : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Personal Injury

January 14, 2026
Parties Agree To Dismissal Of Suit Alleging Uber Breached Duty Of Care To Driver

SEATTLE — A rideshare company and the estate and survivors of one of its drivers filed a stipulation for order of dismissal with prejudice on Jan. 13, having reached a settlement in December in a lawsuit brought as a result of the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.
January 13, 2026
Tesla Answers Complaint In Wrongful Death Suit Over ‘Defective’ Autopilot

SALT LAKE CITY — Tesla Inc. and Tesla of UT Inc. (collectively, Tesla) filed an answer to a complaint in a product liability and wrongful death suit filed by survivors of people killed in a Tesla Model X, alleging that the vehicle was “unreasonably dangerous and defective” when it was driven by one of the decedents and crashed into a truck due to the failure of the vehicle’s autopilot feature.
January 12, 2026
Jury Returns Defense Award In Injury Case After Judge Excludes Expert Testimony

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal jury returned a defense verdict in a premise liability case in which the judge previously ruled that an expert retained by a woman who says she fell on a man’s raised sidewalk could not testify because his opinions were obvious and not based a reliable methodology.
January 12, 2026
John Crane Appeals $10 Million Judgment In Oregon Asbestos Case

PORTLAND, Ore. — John Crane Inc. (JCI) filed a notice indicating that it would appeal an Oregon judge’s entry of a $10,284,000 limited judgment against it in an asbestos case involving the company’s gaskets.
January 12, 2026
Arizona Tobacco And Vape Shops Agree To Pay $460,000 For Underage Sales

PHOENIX — Three companies and their owner agreed to pay $460,000 in restitution, civil penalties and attorney fees to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as part of a consent judgment entered in Arizona state court resolving claims brought by the attorney general for illegal sales of tobacco and nicotine products to minors.
January 09, 2026
Family Settles AI Chatbot Negligence Suit Against Character Technologies

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a product liability and negligence suit after being informed of a settlement of a family’s claims that their child committed suicide after Character Technologies Inc.’s artificial intelligence chatbot encouraged him to do so.
January 09, 2026
Man Seeking To Add COVID Vaccine To Vaccine Injury Table Appeals Standing Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who sought an order forcing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT) so he could be compensated by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) filed a notice of appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 8 after a District of Columbia federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss for lack of standing, having found that an act of Congress was a necessary step to adding a vaccine to the VIT.
January 09, 2026
Expert’s Testimony Properly Excluded As Unreliable, 9th Circuit Rules

PHOENIX — An expert retained by a plaintiff in a product liability case to prove causation was properly excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 after the district court judge found his testimony to be unreliable, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 8, affirming a summary judgment award for the manufacturer of a portable camping fire device.
January 09, 2026
Ky. High Court: Factual Parts Of Hospital’s Fall Analysis Exempt From Disclosure

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky trial court erred when it required a hospital to produce factual portions of a root cause analysis following a patient’s fall as that information is privileged, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate panel’s writ prohibiting a trial court from enforcing its discovery order as to those portions of the document.
January 08, 2026
Insurer’s Rescission Bid Denied In Coverage Dispute As To Underlying Litigation

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment seeking rescission of policies due to a purported material misrepresentation in a policy application and a determination that the insurer has no duty to defend in underlying personal injury litigation involving a property owner and a property manager, finding “that there was no misrepresentation” in the application and that there is no dispute that a duty to defend is covered under the policies.
January 07, 2026
COMMENTARY: 2025 Key Insurance Decisions, Trends, & Developments & A Look Ahead To 2026

By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Jordan W.P. Evans
January 08, 2026
Judge Refuses To Dismiss Insurer’s Suit Arising From Injury At Cryotherapy Facility

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California refused to dismiss an insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that its business owners liability insurance policy’s professional services exclusion bars coverage for a patient’s underlying action alleging that she was injured at a cryotherapy facility while receiving medical treatment from the insured, also denying the insured’s motion to dismiss the insurer’s claim seeking reimbursement of the $275,000 it paid to settle the underlying action on its insured’s behalf.
January 05, 2026
Nevada High Court Affirms Ruling Finding Claim To Now-Insolvent Insurer Excluded

LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling finding that a truck driver’s claim for work-related injuries to the trucking company’s now-insolvent insurer was excluded by a workers’ compensation exclusion clause, finding that the driver failed to show that he was an independent contractor and that the workers’ compensation claim related to his injuries was denied.
January 05, 2026
Experts Cannot Opine On Negligence Theories Not In Complaint, Judge Holds

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on Jan. 2 held that testimony from an expert retained by employees of Union Pacific Railroad Co. (UPR) who sued for injuries they sustained during their employment is limited “to the three theories of negligence enumerated in the operative complaint.”
January 05, 2026
ChatGPT Reinforced Delusions, Led To Murder-Suicide, Man’s Estate Says

SAN FRANCISCO — ChatGPT foreseeably reinforced a Connecticut man’s delusions that his 83-year-old mother orchestrated attempts on his life leading him to commit murder-suicide, the administrator of his estate claims in a suit alleging product liability, negligence and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
January 02, 2026
Judge: Flint Bellwether Plaintiffs’ Tort Claims Against Government Not Time-Barred

DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan has ruled that the U.S. government has failed to satisfy its burden of showing that the claims of any bellwether plaintiff are time-barred in the $722.4 million Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit against the government related to the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint.
January 02, 2026
Parties Reach $17.25M Deal To Resolve Dispute Over Ohio Train Case Settlement

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio has approved a stipulated settlement between Kroll Settlement Administration (KSA) and class counsel in the litigation related to the 2023 derailment of a train operated by Norfolk Southern Corp. in East Palestine, Ohio, under which KSA will pay $17.25 million to compensate the settlement fund for “any alleged violations or errors” it committed in its administration of the $600 million settlement reached in that litigation in 2024.
December 23, 2025
Mich. Appeals Court Says No Error In Excluding Nurse’s Standard-Of-Care Testimony

DETROIT — A Michigan trial court did not err in excluding standard-of-care testimony from an expert in a medical malpractice case after finding that it was “too general and too unconnected to accept,” a divided state appeals court held in affirming in an interlocutory appeal.
December 23, 2025
Federal Judge Finds No Error In Magistrate Judge’s Ruling On Expert Testimony

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge refused to reverse a decision by a magistrate judge that excluded one expert on police policies to testify in case alleging that police violated a man’s constitutional rights during an arrest but allowed another to testify, finding that nothing in the order is “clearly erroneous or contrary to law.”
December 22, 2025
Testimony From Experts For Man Killed In Construction Accident Limited

PITTSBURGH — Experts retained by the estate of a man who died of injuries from a workplace accident allegedly caused by a faulty cement mixer can testify on how certain design elements “could have caused [the man’s] injury, but not whether they did,” a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge said in partially granting two motions to exclude.
December 22, 2025
Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5 Million For Talc-Related Mesothelioma

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury on Dec. 19 awarded a 37-year-old woman and her husband more than $65.5 million for peritoneal mesothelioma she developed after exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc.
December 22, 2025
Ky. High Court: Fact Issue Exists Concerning Whether COVID Immunity Law Applies

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Finding that evidence of gross negligence in the treatment of a nursing home resident who died during the pandemic that would nullify immunity under the Kentucky COVID-19 immunity statute had been alleged sufficient to create a question of material fact, a split Kentucky Supreme Court reversed the judgment of a state appellate court upholding a trial court grant of summary judgment in favor of a nursing home and staff members.
December 22, 2025
Dietitian Can Testify In Negligence Case On Nutritional Need Standards

BILLINGS, Mont. — A dietitian retained by the estates of residents who died while at an assisted living facility can testify on how assisted living facilities should monitor residents' nutritional status and needs, a Montana federal judge held, rejecting the facility’s efforts to exclude her testimony.
December 19, 2025
Engineering Expert’s Testimony Limited In Product Liability Case Against Hyundai

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge agreed to limit testimony from a mechanical engineering expert in a car accident case but largely denied the motion to exclude filed by a car manufacturer.
December 19, 2025
Former Police Officers Sue City Agency For Brain Cancer From Radioactive Waste

PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia police officer and his wife, as well as the administrators for the estates of two police officers, have individually sued a city agency alleging that it is liable for causing brain cancer because the agency developed a former ammunition arsenal that contained depleted Uranium-238 and radium and made the facility commercial property that housed the office for the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit. Former officer Joseph Cooney contends in his complaint that he is entitled to punitive damages for the agency’s “wanton” conduct that caused his glioblastoma multiforme.